Saturday, October 24, 2009

In May of 2000, I was diagnosed with very early stage Breast Cancer...a life changing experience.

I never expected to hear those words, "you have breast cancer!" At that very moment I had what you would call "an out of body experience." I could hear my husband asking the Dr. questions and then several people came rushing in and were re-assuring me that I had plenty of people around me to help me get thru this. All I could think of was - this is it for me. I was scared beyond words.

I was a very blessed girl, I had a Lumpectomy with eight weeks of radiation and five years of Tamoxifen. Besides a small scar, you cannot even tell. It was caught so very early and I was followed very closely, and still today I am checked regularly.

The support and love that I received from my family, my friends, co-workers was incredible and I know that their love and support helped me heal and get thru what I feel was the hardest time in my life. My husband went to each and every treatment and Dr. appt. with me and it made all the difference in the world. My daughter and six month old grandaughter were living with me at the time, each day when I would get up and get ready for my treatment, I would see the smile on my grandaughters little face, she gave me strength and courage - I knew I would be fine! It's been nine years for me...each day is a celebration!

Self exams and yearly mammograms are so important. Had I not done a self exam, the outcome may have been much worse. The cancer was not detected by my mammogram I just had four months earlier, I found the lump myself! One in every eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, its an epidemic.

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't worry, but I can tell you that you look at life so much differently. You embrace your family and friends and just life itself. I love life and it is good to me. I don't sweat the small stuff as much (still working on that!). I have so much gratitude for all that I have.

Also, becoming addicted to genealogy and doing my family history has made an incredible difference in my life too, I look at "family" so much differently. One of the things I found researching my paternal line, my great aunt Virginia...my namesake, passed away from breast cancer ! I was blown away when I received her death certificate!

The friends, support and love from the genea-family community is priceless and I am blessed to be a part of it. I almost didn't post about this, but I feel it is important to share in hopes to helping others.

It is fitting that October is Breast Cancer Awareness and Family History month, they both have changed my life...I am here to share! Thank you Apple for your support and sharing how breast cancer has effected your life, your friend is in my thoughts and prayers. Hopefully we can help others avoid this terrible disease.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

I found a treasure chest of genealogy quotes and poems as I was cleaning out my email in-box (very behind!) today - good timing for Treasure Chest Thursday

My dear genealogy friend Rachel had sent me a ton of genealogy quotes and poems last year via email. I met Rachel thru Ancestry.com's message board when I had very first started my own family history.

Rachel helped me more than I can ever express in just saying thank you. She has been doing genealogy for many years and both of our ancestors hail from Kentucky. We had discussed our love for poems and quotes related to genealogy and family history. Next thing I knew, she had sent over a ton of them.

I have a treasure chest full to share, some you may have already read, some not, but they really are wonderful. This isn't your typical Treasure Chest Thursday post, but it does mean alot to me.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Digital photo taken and held by Gini Webb (address for private use)San Diego, CA October 19, 2009

I have temporarily run out of my own Tombstone Tuesday photos (computer problems and accessing my photos). As I went on line the other day, I was checking out the San Diego Genealogical Society here in San Diego (I am thinking of joining), I clicked on a local cemetery that was listed on the SDGS site under Records available online (link below).

El Cajon Cemetery was officially founded in 1903. The history on it is wonderful. I decided I wanted to check it out and did so yesterday! I was out walking around in the original (dry) part of the cemetery when the caretaker Joe Dodson came up to me and asked if I needed anything. I explained to him that I am doing genealogy and that I wanted to see this particular cemetery. He was so helpful and shared some of the history with me. He said, "We don't really have anyone big and famous but over there are relatives of Wyatt Earp" - my ears perked up and I knew I was going to head over to that one.

He also gave me Marna Clemons phone number, Marna took over the transcribing project, did extensive research, coordinated the final survey for publishing. I look forward to connecting with Marna. We meet the nicest most helpful people along our genealogy journeys.

Also close by were the grave sites of the "Butterfield Stage Coach" people. I am not sure if they were employees or passengers but the Butterfield Stage Coach route went thru San Diego and further out east of San Diego which I have been on in a jeep. I didn't get a chance to find those graves and I had forgotten to take my camera (I know, what the heck was I thinking, my phone didn't do too bad of job with Earp photo)!

I will be going back but I wanted to share this photo of Wyatt Earps relatives. I do not know what the relationship was, but according to the caretaker, they were direct descendants. I did take a few other photos of very old headstones and will post those soon. I was looking to see if I recognized any names that may have appeared in any of our genea-blogs, I am not native to San Diego nor do I have any ancestors here. One never knows where you may find your ancestor, so I wanted to share with you!

Take a moment to read the history on this cemetery, there are several buried there that are not native to San Diego or California, there is a list of surnames after the preface and acknowledgements, a few I saw are originally from Wyoming and Colorado.

I really enjoyed walking thru this cemetery, it was very quiet and peaceful, it's tucked away and not many know it's even there.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Many of you may have heard, I have been authoring the recent May I Introduce You To series on GeneaBloggers. This has been a great experience and I have been learning so much!

I am fairly new to the genealogy blogging circuit and actually blogging in general. I had many fears about starting my own genealogy blog: I felt that others would not be interested in reading what I had to share on my blog. Also, I have only been doing my own family history for less than two years, without much research or family history experience under my belt, so there really wouldn’t be a lot of material to post about yet.

In addition, I was working full time up to October 6th, but now I am gratefully retired, as I want to pursue genealogy almost full time. I feel I have found something I love to do - now, I just need to learn to improve my writing skills and stlye for my blog. Being a part of the genea-blog family as I call it has taught me so much about many different things that I would not have learned had I not started blogging.

Writing the May I Introduce You To articles has given me the opportunity to improve my writing skills. I love doing the articles and learning about other genealogy bloggers, how they started their blogs, what their fears about blogging were in addition to understanding their heritage and history. There are so many incredibly talented and knowledgeable people who make a difference in so many of our lives and the lives of others.

It is my pleasure to write the articles and get to know many of you. I want to thank GeneaBloggers for such a great opportunity. It just doesn’t get any better than this!

If you haven’t had the opportunity to read the articles I have featured so far, click on the blog links below and enjoy…leave a comment to let them know you stopped by. I look forward to featuring many more of you in the future.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Ginisology has been nominated for Family Tree Magazines Top 40 Genealogy Blogs! I am lucky enough to be listed amongst the 12 most creative, helpful, informative genealogy blogs in the Personal/Family Category and I am very grateful, Thank you! Ginisology is fairly new and to be on that list is quite a surprise and honor!

If you haven't voted yet, do head over and vote for your favorites in each category, and you can vote more than once, it's ok! Every blog is unique and has so much to offer, it's tough picking them. You have until Nov 5th, 2009.

Also, please check out footnoteMavin's wonderful poll roll here, she has made it very easy, thank you fm. If you haven't had the opportunity to check BeNotForgots geneablogs in a cloudof nominee's, head on over, as always Vickie is so creative and she did a beautiful job of showing us off, thank you!

Friday, October 2, 2009

On this day 5 years ago my Uncle Adi passed away. He is very much missed.

Adalbert Haf was an identical twin to Helmut Haf, my maternal German uncles. What is even more amazing is that both their deaths were identical too. Each being diagnosed with the same disease in the same part of the body during routine physicals ten years apart from each other.

Tomorrow Oct 3rd is their birthday and I will be honoring them on their day.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

It is said that my ninth Grandfather Robert Innes in 19th Baron of Innes ~ b: 1562 ~ d: 1634 ~ married Elisabeth Elphinstone on 1 Oct 1582. Happy Anniversary!

I have not verified this information as of yet, the information was obtained thru a family book created and compiled by Roberta Iiames of Ohio. She has spent over 30 years researching the Innes/I'an's/IIams/Ijams/Iams/Imes/Ijames Family History. Additional source of information from: Lois Ijams Hartman and her privately printed book "Remembered in this Land"Now being retired - I am looking forward to sourcing and verifying this data hopefully in some way on my own.

It is also said that we are descendants of Edward II King of England, which is Robert Innes ancestor. I have not validated this data. Compiled by: Guy and Roberta Iiames, Springboro, Ohio

~ Roberta has been an incredible support and contributor to my research on the Ijames Family, thank you Roberta, you are very generous with your time and research.